Taliban prepared for second talks with US officials

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AT-KABUL: The Taliban militants are preparing for another round of talks with the diplomats of the United States, sources close to the insurgent group’s leadership said.

These sources added that Taliban’s leadership was working to form a delegate for the second round of the talks that would discuss the crisis of Afghanistan.

This round of talks would focus on the prisoner swap, according to the sources who did not want to be identified. They furthered that the delegation would be made up of three or four persons and would hold another round of talks if the US officials were serious and honest over the prisoner swap.

They said that Taliban delegation would hand a list of their colleagues being held in the US prisoners to the US officials, adding that if the inmates were freed, Taliban would continue dialogues with the US diplomats on more important issues.

Last month, Taliban and US representatives held secret talks in Doha that was later revealed.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, head of Taliban’s political office would lead the group’s delegation for the next talks.

Taliban have so far rejected any talks with Ghani administration, urging on direct dialogues with the US officials.

The United States secretary of state recently appointed Afghan-American veteran diplomat Zalmai Khalilzad as his special envoy for Afghanistan, a move that seems to accelerate peace efforts in the war-torn country.